Friday, April 16, 2010

High dose anti-biotics to do the trick!

Seen the Dr. this morning about this throat thing and the overall weakness, after looking in my throat which was "red and awful looking" she prescribed 7 days worth of heavy hitting anti-biotic. Sure hope this does the trick cause I have 0 energy and lots to do. Hope to get a lot done this weekend. Have put out the word to get a disposal bin, should make things a lot quicker and cheaper!! as it is costing a fortune going back and forth to the public drop off. Hope everyone has a good Friday, and weekend as well.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Moving, who knew!

Who knew that after 20yrs in the same place one would accumulate so much! As we are moving from a 2 bdrm home with basement to a 2 bdrm apt. with NO basement it has become quite a challenge to get the basement here at the house emptied out. Seems like every time I make some head way or a space it just keeps getting filled up again.

Brenda has picked up Jason (her son) for the day and he will be going under the house into the crawl space to try and empty it out today. We shall see. I really think or at least hope that once the basement is emptied the rest of the packing should go quickly, or at least that is what I'm thinking!
I'm guessing another week to get things all sorted out with the basement. I try to do at least 1 job every day, however today is going to be a rest day as I woke up with a terribly sore throat, and barely the energy to get out of bed!,

Well that's my world for now. Will keep y'all posted with the moving adventures as they go.

Monday, April 12, 2010

When it all began.

I am a 4 time cancer survivor since 2007, I underwent a bone marrow/stem cell transplant in Dec/08, and I was diagnosed again in Dec/09 with yet another cancer and am currently undergoing radiation. My story begins in December of 2006, I was seeing an E.N.T. Specialist to find the cause of a lump on the left side on my neck. During the exam he asked if he could go through my nostril and down my throat with a camera to have a look, of course I agreed. It was during this exam the he found a small mass on the left side of my vocal chord. A biopsy followed a week later, the results came back positive, I had a squamous cell carcinoma of the left vocal chord. I was then scheduled for 25 rounds of radiation. The Specialist, as well as my Radiation Oncologist, were both confident we would get a full remission as I was diagnosed early and was pre-stage 1. However, after all of this, we still did not know the reason for the lump on my neck, as it was still there and not related to this.
It was during the radiation treatments that another lump developed on the right side of my neck. My Oncologist referred me back to the original Specialist/Surgeon to remove the lump in order to send it for a biopsy. The biopsy was inconclusive and the sample was sent to London Health Sciences center for more testing. As I was nearing the end of my radiation treatments, the results of the biopsy came back. It was positive for T-Cell Histiocyte Rich Diffuse Large B-Cell Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.
I now was going straight from Radiation to Chemotherapy. After a consultation with the Medical Oncologist it was determined that being an aggressive cancer we would treat it aggressively with 8 rounds of R-CHOP. I began my treatments in March of 2007 2 weeks after finishing radiation and continued until September of 2007 at which time I was in remission, yea!.
In February of 2008 after feeling a lump in my neck again, and having a follow-up C/T I was informed the cancer (Lymphoma) was back and it was now in my head, neck and lungs. After consultation with my Oncologist it was decided that the treatment regimen this time would be GDP, again more aggressive to treat aggressive. I began treatment again in March of 2008, almost a year to the day of my first chemo experience. Again I underwent 8 rounds of chemo and finished treatment in September of 2008 and was in remission once again. My Oncologist was now recommending an Autologous Stem Cell Transplant, she stated this was being done to try and obtain a longer remission period or cure.
In October of 2008 I went to London Health Sciences Center for a Stem Cell Harvest to prepare for the transplant. In early November of 2008 after two attempts at a stem cell harvest it was determined that they were not able to obtain enough cells for the transplant. In mid/end November of 2008 I again went back to London, where they now were going to go right to the bone and harvest bone marrow. Success! I was now being sent home again to Windsor and would be returning to London in a week to be admitted for the transplant. I was admitted to London the end of November 2008 to do the transplant and was there for 3 weeks, during which time I celebrated my 50th Birthday, and as my nurse informed me, my "new" birthday. I was back home in Windsor just in time for Christmas.
I participated in the Canadian Cancer Society's Relay for Life here in Windsor on June 19 2009 for the first time, and met many new friends and survivors.
In Jan/10 I once again relapsed and have stared radiation treatments, I am very grateful to my wife, all my Doctors throughout this time and to all family and friends.
UPDATE: It has been found that although I have relapsed this once again is a different form of cancer. I now have Nodular Lymphocyte Predominate Hodgkin's Lymphoma. This is very curable and it has been decided that radiation therapy is the best option. I will be starting treatment Feb 24/10 and will be having 20 treatments over four weeks.